The Wise Monkey's POV:

Summoning in—

3...

2...

And 1...

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"Ahh, there you are!" Prince Jisoo turned around at the voice of the man he was lately expecting to receive. Prince Kim Jaejoong slowly advanced towards him with a smile on his devious face, his younger brother following him looking weary. "I have been looking for you everywhere in the palace, asking around everywhere. I expected to be welcomed with the royal family's presence," he darkly said and lightened up the next instant. "But I know that you are a busy man and I can understand."

"You only asked at the gate, brother, we haven't entered the palace yet," the younger brother, Prince Kim Hongjoong, muttered.

"But can we? Before even notifying our host of our presence?" Jaejoong scorned, but his face always had a smile( of derision, smirk, arrogance or-or-and more but almost never one that expressed positivity). "Besides, I did mean to be a little hyperbolic with it, brother."

"I'm extremely sorry, Prince Jaejoong," Jisoo said. "I—"

"You were busy?" Jaejoong arched his brow, a smirk still characterising his face. "Maybe because of a valid reason? Maybe."

"No, I was not particularly busy," Jisoo said and Jaejoong's smirk dimmed. "But I'm very sorry, Prince Jaejoong and Prince Hongjoong. We did not expect your arrival at this hour."

"We were supposed to reach yesterday. Should you not be expecting our arrival anytime after that time mark?" Jaejoong's voice was grim. Hongjoong didn't know how to ease the situation, the many things he would do to tame his temperamental brother seldom worked.

"Yes, you were supposed to reach yesterday. You are late if I must say," Jisoo calmly answered, a kind but solemn diplomacy was the characteristic of his face. He was used to dealing with Jaejoong. "If you would have departed late, we would have received information, on the absence of which we assumed it must be the hurdles on the way. And knowing the route, we presumed you would reach by the evening at the latest. But you surprised us arriving early than we presumed."

"In a way, we are both late and early," Hongjoong contributed with a weak smile.

"I hurried here looking for you as soon as I was informed, but my apologies still pertain," Jisoo said and bowed charmingly. "You look tired, Hongjoong. You have travel sickness, do you not?"

"We had to walk all the way from the gate," Jaejoong remarked.

"Why—" Jisoo started but was cut off by Hongjoong.

"He refused to take the carriage because we were not welcomed at the gate."

Jisoo ordered the guards to bring a carriage. "I don't need that, a few more metres is all," Hongjoong said.

"No, take the carriage and go rest," Jaejoong ordered his brother. "I will walk with Prince Jisoo."

When Hongjoong left in the carriage, both the princes started their walk towards the massive building in the middle of the estate, talking about politics and a few other things of their concern on their way. It slowly transcended to more light-hearted, private talks.

"Haha," Jaejoong laughed. "But the last hunting expedition was the best. I enjoyed it much more than all the previous ones."

"It was pleasant, yes."

"We had you loosened up that night. The wine I brought was good, was it not?"

"I do not remember much, did I consume too much that night?" Jisoo asked, really eager to get an answer, and Jaejoong became sober again, his cold, dark irises studying Jisoo's face intensely.

"No," the answer was firm. "only a little. And then you went to sleep. Why?" There was an eager stress on the last part, inaudible but still well-conveyed by his expression( one that Jisoo failed to notice).

"Ah! I do not remember anything after I drank a bit of that, retiring to go to sleep or going to sleep or anything I could have done on my way back to the tent. Are you sure I didn't overdrink?"

"Even if you did, it would be uncharacteristic. It was just wine. You were tired, you had some sips and then went to sleep straight away. Of course, you wouldn't remember, you were asleep," he smirked. It wasn't just wine, however. The pious Prince Jisoo who condemned the usage of intoxicants and their influential capabilities on the body( like a parasite taking over the host and controlling them, as per him) wouldn't love to learn that his peers had deliberately mixed foreign substances in his wine for their sick satisfaction.

"I suppose."

"The night was just as memorable as the day. You missed it."

"Oh, really? What did you all do?"

Jaejoong smirked lecherously. "Oh, it was sweet. I still remember her smell," he muttered as he seemed to reminisce. "I sweated out just as much as the day, you know what I mean, prince? An active night it was. God, the women in this province!" Just as he finished, his eyes fell upon a certain figure, someone his ogling, lustful eyes lightened at the sight of. Jisoo who grew uncomfortable at the words of the man, followed the trail of his eyes to see Soojin walking along in the distance. "And the goddess of them all is here too. Too close to you, prince. How do you control yourself?" he asked as he still eyed Soojin.

"You are speaking inappropriately, Prince Kim," Jisoo said growing serious. "I do not tolerate any disrespect of women under my province."

"I am merely stating the obvious," Jaejoong said. "Isn't she the most enticing one here? Blessed with the beauty of the Gods? Am I wrong? But if have to say something offensive yet I know is as true as the sun and moon, then I would love to elaborate on her unchaste tendencies. It is something I studied over the years, I am a true judge of character if I say so myself. You should—"

Jisoo's jaw clenched. "Prince Jaejoong, you should learn what and what not to speak out aloud!"

Jaejoong laughed. "I always knew you had your eyes on her, but I did not know you were silly enough to fall for someone like her. Even if I push past the truth that she is just a filthy maid, I would suggest against it. What man can love a wench who likes to open her legs—"

"Jaejoong!" Jisoo halted in his track. "Mind what you—"

"You should mind what you say, prince!" Jaejoong growled. "The king wouldn't want his heir going around creating rifts with all the provinces for a mere maid."

Jisoo collected himself. "You shouldn't be baselessly accusatory like this, Prince Jaejoong. Royal or not, you must not slander people, some might not be privileged enough to get away with the havoc post victimization."

"I agree that I do not have any proof of how chaste she is or isn't. But her intentions, I can read."

"You would have to explain that now, wouldn't you?" Jisoo was trying his best to remain calm.

Jaejoong only chuckled at what he accomplished. "Well, of course. Everyone's after her if you have noticed. And can they be blamed? Look at her beauty! It should be no surprise to you how many men, including the royals, are after her, looking for at least one sweet night's worth of time to spend with her in privacy."

"That is not a woman's fault." Jisoo gritted his teeth.

"When we look a woman's way, if she dislikes it, she will show it. She'll not look you in the eye, she'll avoid the route, and when the men are powerful and intimidating like myself, she'll be afraid. But this wench, she enjoys the stare we give her. She has never changed the route when she sees me or our peers; the other maids do, they avert their eyes, try to move away from us as far as they can like a scared little lamb. But not this one, no. She enjoys the attention. It's vixens like her we should be careful of, the confident ones, the flirty ones that lure you in. They target the wealthy men, and sweet talk or seduce their way into getting what they want, and that, as history has proved again and again, is nothing but the wealth, the riches and title and the comforts of it. Brainwashing, going to the extremes like inducing pregnancy or blackmailing and whatnots, anything to get you to wife them. I have seen a lot."

"She's not like that!"

"That is what they all want you to believe. These vicious whores are marvellous at pretending they love you, that they are genuine. But no matter what tricks they pull, there has to be one weakness, there is always one. Those men who found it stand a chance to tell the story as I do, the rest succumbed their lives to their vixen wives' poisoning. Wealthy widows have blood on their hands, they say."

Jisoo wanted to say a lot, but he chose not to. He now had queries( lots of them) hanging around his head that he needed to sit and analyze. "We should just head inside hurriedly, prince. The king and the queen are awaiting your presence, freshen up meet us in an hour," he monotonously said.

They silently walked into the palace. Jaejoong smirked, turning his head back to cast his dark, shadowy glance at Soojin for an instant before he carried on, all without the now contemplating Jisoo's notice.

.

.

.

Soojin rushed more towards the West Gate of the palace. Other than the guards at the gate and a few palace sweepers around, there was no one else. Of course, there wouldn't be! It was still early in the morning, people had work to do in the palace. Soojin was supposed to be working too and she was a little guilty about sneaking out. What if the princess demanded her presence now? She'd have to hear an earful and more when she'd return back. 

She was anxious as she was looking out for a familiar face on the premises, she waited near the garden. She was frustrated because she didn't actually know who she was to be expecting to see. A small note was all a gloomy Wooyoung had given her in the morning. And why he was so glum, she did not receive a clear answer to. He had just pointed at the note. And what it entailed was the venue and time with the roughly written words 'meet me' preceding it.

Soojin felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned back immediately, half-expecting it to be Wooyoung; maybe he had to tell her something in privacy, part of her she reasoned. But the other part of her that reasoned that the handwriting in the note wasn't Wooyoung's had won. It was Song Mingi she was facing now.

"Mingi?" she asked and scanned his attire that wasn't his usual indoor clothes that suited a librarian. He was to go out again, she assumed, on account of palace or library work, or perhaps due to his own business. But neither was he carrying the metal suitcase from the palace nor he was empty-handed. But there was something strikingly unique today, he had big luggage bags by his legs. Now, Mingi had returned back from his last trip just two weeks ago. And even when he had left for that trip to his rented abode, he hadn't packed these many bags; it had been on the occasion of his mother's demise. After the rituals post demise, when he returned back to the palace two weeks ago he had been a forlorn man Soojin only got one chance to meet and console ever since.

"My dear Soojin..." Mingi breathily said. He didn't sound flirtatious and jovial like he always did. It wasn't ignored how he was feeling all blue and weary, and that Soojin had expected(it had only been two weeks since the tragedy after all).

"Mingi..." she muttered. "I'm not asking you if you feel well, I can tell. But are you at least feeling better now."

He nodded. "I've accepted my loss, Soojin. It was the easy way for her out of her misery, I hope she's doing well in heaven."

"You shouldn't be looking too glum then. I'm sure your mother wouldn't want that."

"I promised myself I wouldn't be, and I was doing fairly well till yesterday. Didn't I say I accepted the loss, I did. I'm positive she preferred it that way rather than continuing to feel extremely sick after being bed-ridden all these years. Seeing her in agony was far worse."

"Then why do you look so, Mingi?" Soojin fretted. "Why are these bags here?"

Mingi looked at the ground. "You know why I began working here. To take care of my mother's treatment expenses. Now that she's gone, I have no one to earn this much for."

"You're leaving the palace!" Soojin stated.

"Yes."

"I understand," she said.

Mingi nodded. "Now I can continue to practise under a physician like before. And I wish to start right away. One more year as an apprentice and then I'll become a doctor. Well, after I pass the exam."

Soojin smiled. "You will. It's just one year. We will get to see you as a doctor then. You have your life planned out, Mingi, you will make a great doctor in the future, so I'm telling you this right away. I'm happy for you. I know you can do it, so I said it in advance."

Mingi chuckled.

"Why are you so sad then?" Soojin asked.

"I wouldn't be able to meet you as often. Wooyoung gets to go outside the palace sometimes, but not you. And I'm sad seeing as you don't seem too sad I'm leaving."

"You're leaving to go chase your success, why would I be sad? Become a doctor and then I'll only come to yours for check-ups or treatments. And I bet all the ladies inside the palace and even outside would love to rather go see Doctor Song than anywhere else."

Mingi shyly nodded as he traced something from his pocket. "My mother firmly held onto few of the jewellery possessions she had, she didn't want to sell it even when we wanted to raise money for treatments, and for a reason. She has left behind a few rings with me, one that she insisted that I present to my newly-wed wife in the future. A wedding present from the absent mother-in-law to my wife as she would say."

"Mingi..."

"Well, the wedding present will stay put, but I have this other ring that I also love." Mingi opened his palm to reveal a jade ring. "This proves its purpose today. The other one stole the wedding spotlight, but this can be a promise ring. Soojin-ah, I would love it if you take this ring."

"Mingi, I..."

Mingi shook his head. "I know you haven't decided yet, I know. But take this, keep it with you till I come back as a successful, financially stable man. Keep it but don't wear it unless it feels meaningful for you. When I come back, if I see you wearing this, I'll take you away from this place as my wife. If you are not wearing it, then we'll go our separate ways, I promise you that. This ring will stay as the validation of the open proposal I made to you, you can accept it by wearing it and you can also reject it." He placed the ring in Soojin's palm and closed it.

Soojin immediately held onto Mingi's hand as kept the ring back in his. "I-I can't," she said with teary eyes and biting lips as she apologetically held his conjoined hands in both of hers. "I'm sorry, I can't. I reject this now. This can never be... You and me..."

"Ohh..." Mingi said, his own eyes slightly becoming blurry.

"I love someone else, I'm sorry."

Mingi let the information sink in. And then he nodded. "And he loves you dearly?"

"I'm positive he does. We love each other...." she said. "I'm sorry. You're a very nice man, Mingi. You've been nice and kind since we were all children and you continued to remain so. Any woman would be lucky to have you as her husband. And maybe if not for this person I am faithful to, I'd have fallen for you."

"It's fine, you don't have to explain," he said with a sad smile. "So when is the wedding?"

Soojin abruptly looked up from the ground to face him. She did not know what to tell him. "Uhh..."

"This man is serious about you, you said. So when is the wedding?"

She didn't respond.

"Soojin-ah... Are you sure this man—"

"Yes, he loves me."

"And you're happy with him?"

"Of course, I am," she weekly said.

"Then tell me why you look weaker these days. You look physically sick some days and you seem to have something on your mind. Why is that? You think I didn't notice. I'm only not a doctor yet because of the rules of the state."

Soojin let go of his hands and stepped back a little and facing him she rested her hands just below her breasts, pressing the loosely fitted fabric tight onto her skin. She then slid then hands down her stomach revealing the protruded outline of her stomach that was hidden underneath the layers of fabric. Mingi gasped as he advanced to her and rested his palm on her stomach. After a few seconds of silent diagnosing while his eyes moved to and fro in concentration, he looked up to meet her eyes in an unsaid question to which she nodded.

He pulled back his hands. "Soojin-ah, you have to bring up the talk to have a wedding with him. If I'm honest I doubt his intentions." His teary-eyed face now changed to that of fury. "What man with good intentions impregnates the woman he loves before marriage and still doesn't marry her after she's been carrying for months!"

"It's not what you think. I didn't tell him about this yet," she said as she rested her hand on her stomach. "Nobody knows. Please don't tell anyone yet, I'll tell Wooyoung myself."

"But he knows he slept with you! Soojin-ah, I love you so much, and that is why I wouldn't ever tolerate seeing you getting tossed aside by anyone like that. You better get a good husband who cherishes you and makes beautiful children with you and raises them. You have to marry him as soon as possible, if he's genuine for you that is. But don't force a philanderer to enter into a marriage with you, you deserve true love, my dear. So tell me you'll disclose this to him soon."

"I...I-I don't know about the marriage. I...." she weekly said and before she started crying, looking at the ground feeling ashamed.

Mingi grabs her chin gently and makes her look up, his other hand rests on her shoulder. "This seems serious. Tell me the name, I'll ask him. I'll take Wooyoung too, Wooyoung has the right as your family to question him, he would need a spokesperson anyway." It was then when Soojin again averted his eyes as she cried out did Mingi noticed a figure in the distance who was boring holes into him with his fierce, angry eyes. And that was when the realization hit him. Mingi did not know how long the figure had been observing them but he did not plan to proper himself, he let his hands resting on Soojin stay static. 

"Is it the prince?" he soberly asked Soojin.

Her red eyes immediately shot up. She spoke nothing, however.

"I see..." he darkly said. He couldn't believe that his best friend's sister, his childhood friend, the woman he loved so dearly had been foolish enough to fall for a preying royal.

He traced back his hands suddenly and grabbed his luggage. "I'll write to Wooyoung when I'll find a place to do the apprenticeship with. Come by for check-ups there. Goodbye then." He started stepping back slowly. 

"And tell your man about this soon. And when things will not go the way you expected with him, know that I am still in this town somewhere ready to provide you with what he couldn't. It's your choice in the end." And then he turned on his heels and walked away from her without looking back.

And Prince Jisoo strode away from the spot where he was spying over the duo with tightened jaws and clenching fists.

A/N:

double update hehe. tired the heck out of me.

and I realized I wasn't supposed to release the scenes of the last chap until two more chaps. chap 20 now was supposed to be the orig chap 22 actually. dumb me. i had to rearrange the remaining chaps bcos of it:((

+ don't be cruel to hehetmon. pls vote if u like or comment. don't make hehetmon sad:(